More jobs from DPWH, but still no quality?

The Arroyo administration has vowed to fix or repair our badly dilapidated roads and in order to do this, a memorandum of agreement was signed for the implementation of the Roadside Maintenance-Job Creation Program (RMJCP), which would create 17,000 new jobs for poor Filipinos. That’s fine with me; after all, it is the government’s duty to find jobs for our people. However, this should never be at the expense of quality.

Most of our roads are made of asphalt bitumen, which is derived from crude oil. Just imagine how much money has been lost because ill-trained workers who think that the government owes them a job work without thinking of giving quality to our roads. So when the first rain comes… all that gravel and bitumen go literally down the drain… clogging our drainage and worsening our already bad flooding situation. Sure, give 17,000 poor people the jobs they need, but instill in them that we, the rest of the Filipino people, also expect quality from their work!

Talking about the quality of work at the DPWH, we got a lot of e-mailed responses to our article a couple of weeks ago about the bad roads in Panay and Samar. But because the media isn’t often heard from that faraway place, we got another response:

"Dear Mr. Avila, This is a sequel to your column (May 5, 2006) on bad roads. For the last 10 years, I have traveled by land from Manila to my home-province — Leyte — three or four times a year. And I am too familiar with the conditions of the roads, particularly from the port of Allen, Samar to Calbiga. And always, as our car jumps from one pothole to another, the bumpy experience never fails to elicit the question ‘Who’s in charge here?’

"Truly, the road from Allen to Calbiga, passing through Calbayog and Catbalogan, is a nightmare for road travelers. The road condition is so bad you can’t run more than 20 mph without courting trouble for your car. It’s like running an obstacle course. Of course, politicians in that part of the country, with full support from DPWH, will always have good alibis why the so-called RP-Japan Friendship Highway in Samar, despite its importance in the overall island-to-island linkages, is so neglected. Conversely, look at the Calbiga-San Juanico Bridge road stretch. It’s nicely paved you’d think you’re somewhere else outside the Philippines. Thanks… Amador ‘Morry/Mading’ Moriles, Capoocan, Leyte"

Frankly speaking, I didn’t expect to get a deluge of responses to my articles about the broken roads in Samar, which are part of the main artery linking Luzon to the Visayas and Mindanao. Perhaps it is because few people there believe that the DPWH can’t be pressured by the local media… so when someone else takes the cudgels, they’d respond right away. Well, here’s another e-mailed response to this issue:

"I am envious of you Cebuanos for the wonderful place you have which I sometimes consider my second home, (having been there) as a student of CIT and where I am now blessed with a career. Because of your enthusiastic public officials, coupled with the unique behavior and attitude of Cebuanos, Cebu (is among) the most livable cities in Asia and haven for tourists.

"I appeal that you continue to include in your column our sentiments regarding the conditions of our roads so that next time you visit Samar with your ‘brothers-in-motorcycle,’ your column will depict Samar as an eco-tourism destination with excellent and vehicle-friendly roads. Thank you and more power! Very truly yours, Emilio L. Tampon Jr., a taxpayer!"

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In reaction to our article last Monday on the brutal kidnapping, rape and murder of 19-year-old Jemarie Varron in Butuan City in the early morning hours last May 2, our good friend, Director Rey Esmeralda of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), told me that he would order the NBI in the Caraga region to investigate this heinous crime.

Dr. Jose Dacudao, national president of Save Our Languages through Federalism (Solfed), who informed me about this gruesome murder of this Solfed volunteer, sent me a text message last Monday that the autopsy on the girl revealed 17 stab wounds in different parts on the body, including the fatal one that pierced her heart and that her throat was slit. He e-mailed me the picture of the girl lying dead amid the tall grass near the Butuan City Hall… and believe me, you don’t want to see that picture.

From her final position, it is clear that she died fighting… trying to fend off her attackers even in her final moments! Dr. Dacudao also sent me a picture of Jemarie (I had never met her) and no doubt, she was a very pretty girl, but because of her poverty, she was easy prey for criminal syndicates that pounce on poor girls and "sell" them to prostitution dens in Cebu or Manila.

I understand that the hotel called Dottie’s Place, which was booked by Jemarie’s female friend or acquaintance or perhaps one of the three men who were in the room where Jemarie sensed that she was being lured into a trap, has somehow refused to cooperate with the police as to under whose name the room was registered. That would have surely put a tracer on the person who might have killed her. I don’t know why Dottie’s Place is trying to protect the killers of Jemarie… could it be that this bawdy hotel might have been used in previous incidents leading to white slavery?

At this point, I hope that Cebu City Criminal Investigation Division Group (CIDG) chief Superintendent Paul Labra II would go out of his way to investigate this from his end in Cebu City. After all, reports seem to indicate that the suspects have fled Butuan City and are supposedly here in Cebu. Let us hope that the CIDG and the NBI would work hand in hand to find the killers. The NBI in Caraga already took samples from the nails and hair of Jemarie, including the semen found inside her, thus anyone who gets caught can easily be linked to her murder.

It’s common knowledge here in Cebu that most girls caught in the web of prostitution do not necessarily come from Cebu, but are, of course, Cebuano-speaking. Most of them come from Negros or Mindanao. Perhaps we have stumbled upon the recruitment method these criminal syndicates employ against these poor unsuspecting girls. They should be stopped!

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For e-mail responses to this article, write to [email protected]. Bobit Avila’s columns in The Freeman can also be accessed through The Philippine STAR website. He also hosts a weekly talkshow, "Straight from the Sky," shown every Monday, at 8 p.m., only in Metro Cebu on Channel 15 of SkyCable.